IFPTE Federal Sector Update on Trump/Musk and DOGE Attacks on Federal Workers - Week Ending Feb 14

IFPTE’s executive officers and staff, along with our Union partners at the Federal Workers Alliance (FWA), continue to work in coalition on all fronts – Legal, Legislative, Grassroots, and PR – to fight against the illegal and unprecedented attacks by President Trump, the so-called DOGE, including Elon Musk and his associates, and the larger Trump Administration, against federal workers and the agencies they work for.    

This update comes as IFPTE closes out its 2025 legislative conference, in which nearly 100 IFPTE Local leaders and members from across the United States and sectors, came together in Washington, DC this week to take our concerns to our elected lawmakers. 

Here is the latest:

Legislative:

  • IFPTE members from across all sectors spanned Capitol Hill this week urging Congress to simply “do their job”, by exercising their authority at the legislative branch to block the unconstitutional actions of the Trump Administration.  While prioritizing urging Congress to block the frenzy of illegal actions being taken by the Trump Administration, IFPTE members provided lawmakers with IFPTE’s point papers listing all of our legislative priorities.  All of IFPTE 2025 issue papers, including federal papers, can be found here.  

  • As Senate and House Republicans introduced budget resolutions this week, the first step towards a massive “budget resolution” that will cut taxed for extremely wealthy on the backs critical government services and federal employee compensation. IFPTE members were anticipating harmful proposals and were ready to approach lawmaker with issue briefs and arguments to stop cuts Medicaid, SNAP, federal employee retirement and health benefits, and other critical government services that working people and IFPTE members count on. Read IFPTE’s issue brief on opposing cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, Support Robust and Responsible Federal Assistance for State and Local Government Programs and Services, and the issue brief on opposing cuts to Federal Employee Retirement Benefits (FERS) and Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB), Making Federal Compensation Competitive and Protecting Federal Employee Benefits.

  • On Thursday, IFPTE joined other federal labor unions, including AFGE, NTEU, and NFFE, to brief the House Labor Caucus on the impact and implication of Musk and Trump’s campaign to cut down the federal government, direct agencies to ignore CBAs, impede scientific integrity and the critical work federal employees do by politicizing agency operations, and the onslaught of Musk/DOGE and Trump efforts to unfairly and unlawfully remove federal workers from the civil service.   

  • IFPTE and NFFE were proud to jointly lead a Federal Workers Alliance (FWA) Capitol Hill sign-on letter late last week to key House and Senate lawmakers imploring Congress to, “to move bipartisan legislation, including but limited to exercising the Holman Rule and working with appropriators to defund the ability of these individuals to access the PII of federal workers…” IFPTE, NFEE, and our federal union partners continue to work with the House Oversight Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to push for strong oversight and transparency and investigate blatantly unlawful Executive Branch actions that seek to break the public services that Americans count on and illegally fire federal workers.  

Grassroots:

  • Nearly 100 IFPTE members marched to Capitol Hill this week to rally with upwards of 2,000 other federal employees, trade Unionists and the public against the illegal actions of the Trump Administration.  There were two rallies – the February 11 “Saving the Civil Service” rally led by AFGE and another led by the National Association of Letter Carriers titled “Fight Like Hell” on February 13.  IFPTE President Matt Biggs spoke at both events.  See pictures of IFPTE members at the rally here and see the full rally in its entirety here.   

Legal:

IFPTE joined as a plaintiff in two lawsuits this week and supported a class action lawsuit that includes IFPTE represented federal workers. The Association of Administrative Law Judges-IFPTE Judicial Council 1 (AALJ) also filed a suit against OPM and the U.S. DOGE Service.  

  • Protect Democracy-led lawsuit along with several other unions suing alleging that the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Treasury improperly disclosed the sensitive records of millions of Americans to DOGE staff who lack appropriate security clearances and had not been properly vetted, and granted access to some of the government’s most sensitive and closely guarded data systems, in violation of the Privacy Act.  The lawsuit is asking the court to impose injunctive and declaratory relief to ensure that improper disclosures to DOGE representatives stop immediately and that any data currently in DOGE’s possession be immediately deleted and destroyed. 

  • NTEU-led lawsuit to protect probationary workers and other federal workers from wholesale firings and asks the Court to rule that mass firings of probationary employees and other federal  employees plus the deferred resignation program and the pressure campaign around it are all unlawful efforts to dismantle the federal government.  

  • AALJ-IFPTE Judicial Council 1, AFGE, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit alleging Privacy Act violations and seeking to block DOGE from accessing personal and employment records through OPM.    

Status of all other lawsuits as tracked by Just Security: 

Government, Labor Rights, TradeCandace Rhettleg conf 2025